We just wanted to make it better for the visitors’ perception. And in zoo biz, that’s what a lot of it is. So that was one thing. The other thing was we had this old building. It was a greenhouse built in 1909. It was called a monkey house because… Read More
We sawed it in two, glued it together on the other side of the glass and let it come out to the visitor. You could hardly see the glass. You could put your hand on the same log that the constrictor’s on. Yeah, that was, just little things like that,… Read More
But in this one building were mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and some invertebrates. And so we were trying to expand into people’s, individual’s mind that it’s not just the charismatic megavertebrates, but it’s other things too, come in and see ’em. Read More
We were unique for a zoo our size to have something like that. Read More
How did zoo exhibits change and evolve during your time?… Read More
We had a lot of old, a four-letter word I don’t like to use C-A-G-E, we had a lot of those, just the old barred cages. And I wanted to change that even though it’s a psychological thing with a visitor and a lot of chainlink fence. And I wanted… Read More
I said, I’d like to see the master plan in Gage Park and traffic patterns, and so on, before we do a master plan for the zoo, no. And drainage and service and utilities, all the underground stuff. Not the glamorous, the underground stuff. No, they wouldn’t do it. So… Read More
So our first offsite facility was at Forbes, which used to be an air force base. And now it’s just Forbes Field. It’s the main airport in town. And they have some ammunition storage areas out there, which are now abandoned, but they’re big bunkers covered with earth and then… Read More
Then we started the Przewalski horses out there. And that became so successful for us that we convinced the city to allow us to buy a farm in the county, 160 acre farm. And we got this regulation perimeter fence, got it approved, USDA. Not open to the public, and… Read More
Yes, and the science and research that we started out with was the ready-made one of the nutritional studies, but then I wanted to get Washburn University involved, even KU or K State. K State has a vet school. And so if we could cooperate with them in some way… Read More
And that’s when we had an off-site conservation propagation center too, 160 acres out in the county with P horses and all kinds of stuff. But the other thing that we were able to do initially was some of these eagles, golden eagles and bald eagles that were brought in,… Read More
That seems very unusual for a small zoo. Yes. Couple of things. One, we are a small zoo. Our zoo occupies about 30 acres in Gage Park, which is only 160 acres. And I was always conscientious about it. I want the zoo to override the park. I begged the… Read More
And how important was conservation at the time you started or your vision for it?… Read More
Well, I believed in it. I thought it was one of the important functions of the zoo. I wasn’t really sure how much we in Topeka could do. We were one of these zoos that would receive injured animals. So we were a rehab facility for local species. We did… Read More
And Philadelphia was right up about that time too. I wanted to do something with it, but quite honestly, there wasn’t a lot I could do at the time. The best thing we’d do with conservation, it was conservation education, was to get people aware of the importance of conservation… Read More
Did you think about science and research as part of what the zoo would make out or?… Read More
Did you have thoughts then about education in the zoo and how did you try and start to implement this?… Read More
Yes, first thing was there were virtually no labels. So the first thing was to do labels. And not just the typical English name or common name, scientific name, range, food, longevity. Read More
What’s a neat little behavior bit that maybe people could actually see this animal doing in this zoo?… Read More
So I try to come up with that kind of stuff. Park department made the labels, these old plastic labels for the router, (Gary mimics whining machine) type thing, you know, they were very good about letting me use some of that stuff. That was number one, but number two,… Read More